UC-NRLF 


HD 


to 

no 


8061'trNvr'iVd 

*A  N  *a'-noBJXs 
■sojg  pjoiAeo 


BULLETIN  OF  THE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  fflSTORY  AND 

POLITICAL  AND  ECONOMIC  SCIENCE  IN  QUEEN'S 

UNIVERSITY,  KINGSTON,  ONTARIO,  CANADA. 


NO.  17,  OCTOBER,   1915. 


CRAFT-GUILDS  OF  THE 
THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  IN  PARIS 


BY 

F.  B.  MILLETT. 


The  Jackson  PreaSf  Kingston 


BULLETIN  OF  THE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  HISTORY  AND 

POLITICAL  AND  ECONOMIC  SCIENCE  IN  QUEEN'S 

UNIVERSITY,  KINGSTON,  ONTARIO,  CANADA. 


No.  1,  The  Colonial  Policy  of  Chatham,  by  W.  L.  Grant. 

No.  2,  Canada  and  the  Most  Favored  Nation  Treaties,  by 
O.  D.  Skelton. 

No.  3.  The  Status  of  Women  in  New  England  and  New  France, 
by  James  Douglas. 

No.  4,  Sir  Charles  Bagot:  An  Incident  in  Canadian  Parlia- 
mentary History,  by  J.  L.  Morison. 

No.  5,  Canadian  Bank  Inspection,  by  W.  W.  Swanson. 

No.  6,  Should  Canadian  Cities  Adopt  Commission  Govern- 
ment, by  William  Bennett  Munro. 

Kb.  7,  An  Early  Canadian  Impeachment,  by  D.  A.  McArthur. 

No.  8,  A  Puritan  at  the  Court  of  Louis  XIV,  by  W.  L.  Grant. 

No.  9,  British  Supremacy  and  Canadian  Autonomy:  An  Ex- 
amination of  Early  Victorian  Opinion  Concerning 
Canadian  Self-government,  by  J.  L.  Morison. 

No.  10,  The  Problem  of  Agricultural  Credit  in  Canada,  by 
H.  MicheU. 

No.  11,  St.  Alban  in  History  and  Legend:  A  Critical  Examina- 
tion; The  King  and  His  Councillors:  Prolegomena  to 
a  History  of  the  .House  of  Lords,  by  L.  F.  Rushbrook 
Wijdiams.-y  :  :.•  i :   : 

No.  12^*.Lif§:af:th^*:Settler  in  \yestern  Canada  Before  the  War 
'  6i  1812,  by  Ad^hi  Shortt. 

No.  13,  The  Grange  in  Canada,  by  H.  Michell. 

No.  14,  The  Financial  Power  of  the  Empire,  by  W.W.  Swanson. 

No.  15,  Modern  British  Foreign  Policy,  by  J.  L.  Morison. 

No.  16,  Federal  Finance,  by  O.  D.  Skelton. 

No.  17,  Craft-Gilds  of  the  Thirteenth  Century  in  Paris,  by  F. 
B.  MUldt. 


CRAFT-GILDS  OF  THE  THIRTEENTH  CENTURY  IN 

PARIS. 


THE  gild  as  it  appears  in  Paris  in  the  13th  century,  M. 
Lespinasse  in  his  Introduction  to  iStienne  Boileau's  Livre 
des  Metiers,  defines  as  '*a  combination  of  individuals  having 
the  right  to  carry  on  an  industrial  profession,  composed  of 
masters,  valets,  and  apprentices,  and  bound  by  oath  to  observe 
the  prescribed  regulations,  and  to  respect  the  authority  of  the 
Jures  in  their  supervisory  functions."  The  gilds  in  documents 
of  the  time  are  called  somewhat  loosely  corporations,  corps  de 
metier,  metier,  commun  du  metier,  ghilde,  and  less  correctly 
charite  or  confrerie,"^  The  gild  was  a  fortress  to  which  the 
workman  rallied  and  from  which  he  beat  off  assailants  in  the 
form  of  feudal  lords  or  foreign  trade  competitors.  Its  primary 
function  was  to  safeguard  the  rights  of  labor,  at  any  period 
none  too  stable,  and  in  the  complicated  social  organization  of 
the  later  Middle  Ages,  decidedly  precarious.  Privileges  had 
to  be  fought  for  and  wrested  from  the  overlord  of  the  com- 
munity, be  he  king  or  noble,  and  a  definite  regulation,  though 
still  in  its  prescriptions  onerous,  was  preferable  to  a  haphazard 
system  of  'taxation,*  subject  only  to  the  sanity  or  rapacity  of 
count,  king  or  bishop.  Foreign  laborers  and  merchants,  too, 
the  narrow  economic  vision  of  the  period  pointed  out  as  hostile 
to  the  well-being  of  the  city-gild,  and  so  exclusion  by  legislation 
is  an  important  article  in  its  "  foreign  policy."  Against 
enemies  within  their  own  ranks  a  sharp  guard  had  to  be  main- 
tained; ignorant  practitioners  or  a  superfluity  of  apprentices 
might  sadly  damage  the  gild's  reputation  for  work  which  was 
"good  and  loyal."  The  organization  of  the  13th  century  gild 
seems  to  find  its  motives  in  the  desire  to  establish  a  definite 
and  firm  control  over  the  metier,  and  to  establish,  so  far  as 
custom  and  law  would  sanction  it,  a  monopoly  over  the  com- 
modities produced. 

The  question  of  the  political  significance  of  the  gild  may 
be  set  aside  at  the  start.    It  has  been  a  difference  of  opinion 

1  Throughout  this  paper  I  shall  translate  the  French  word  metier  by 
the  more  usual  word  gild  when  it  refers  to  the  organization  and  not  the 
craft. 


389407 


which  came  first,  the  gild  or  the  commune,  and  whether  there 
was  a  causal  relationship  between  the  two.  The  fact  is  that 
niost  of  the  gilds — as  organizations^ — had  no  political  share  in 
such  activities  as  elections.  The  gild  was  not  the  cause  of  the 
commune ;  the  commune  did  not  originate  the  gild.  M.  Fagniez^ 
has  said  "Le  mouvement  communal  ne  f  ut  pour  rien  dans  cette 
emancipation  de  la  classe  ouvriere ;  elle  etait  terminee  quand  il 
commen^a.'*  It  is  interesting  to  note,  however,  the  prominence 
which,  under  the  gild  regime,  certain  bourgeois  and  tradesmen 
attain.  For  example,  the  provost  of  the  watermen  of  Paris 
came  to  rival  in  power  the  king's  provost  of  Paris. 

It  is  outside  the  province  of  this  paper  to  discuss  the  some- 
what vexed  question  of  the  origin  of  the  gild.  Various  theories 
have  been  vigorously  championed,  and  a  mere  mention  of  them 
with  a  few  facts  as  to  the  early  appearance  of  the  gilds  will 
suffice.  One  theory  maintains  a  survival  from  the  Roman  Col- 
lege, another  as  an  analogue  to  the  Germanic  guild,  and  the 
third  as  an  organization  under  the  direction  of  the  feudal  lord. 
It  is  curious  to  note  how  in  1725  M.  Felibien  in  his  "Histoire  de 
la  Ville  de  Paris,'*  misinterpreted  the  origin  of  the  Livre  des 
Metiers  on  the  basis  of  this  latter  theory,  attributing  too  much 
of  the  slow  development  of  an  organism  to  the  shaping  hand  of 
Boileau.  He  says:  "E.  B.  rangea  tous  les  marchands  et  les 
artisans  en  differens  corps  de  communautez,  sous  le  titre  de 
confrairies.  Ce  fut  le  premier  qui  leur  dressa  des  Statuts, 
qu'il  fit  ensuite  approuver  dans  une  assemblee  des  principaux 
bourgeois  de  Paris.  Les  prevosts  successeurs  de  Boileau 
adjousterent  de  nouveaux  reglemens  aux  premiers,  et  il  en  fut 
fait  en  recueil."  .  .  .  The  prevalent  theory  of  the  gilds'  origin 
is  that  they  were  born  spontaneously  from  the  needs  of  the 
people,  that  they  were  a  natural  line  of  development  for  youth- 
ful industry,  in  self -protection,  to  take. 

Charters  or  privileges  claimed  by  the  gilds  date  from  the 
11th  century,  though  they  are  most  abundant  in  the  13th.  The 
most  ancient  charter  published  in  the  Recueil  des  Ordonnances 
is  that  of  the  chandlers  of  Paris,  dated  1061.  This  document, 
however,  is  now  supposed  to  have  been  forged  in  the  15th  cen- 
tury.   From  1121  dates  the  first  charter  of  the  marchands  de 


iFagniez:  Documents  relatifs  a  THistoire  de  I'Industrie,  etc.    Intro. 


Veau  de  Paris.  In  1160,  Louis  the  VII  gave  to  Thece,  wife  of 
Yrves  Lacohe,  and  her  heirs,  the  'mastery'  of  five  gilds  which 
dealt  with  leathers,  the  tanners,  the  curriers,  the  shoe-makers, 
the  leather-dressers,  and  the  purse-makers.  In  1162  come  new 
privileges  granted  in  regulation  of  the  bakers.  In  1183  Philip 
Augustus  rented  a  cens  four  houses  which  he  had  confiscated 
from  the  Jews,  to  the  drapers'  gild.  A  lord  in  1219  sold  the 
conf  rerie  of  cloth-merchants  a  house,  and  gave  them  the  leases 
of  several  adjoining  houses. 

The  book  which  is  the  object  of  this  study — the  Livre  des 
Metiers,  owes  its  origin  to  a  capable  official  of  Louis  IX, 
l&tienne  Boileau.  He  was  appointed  prevot  of  Paris  about 
1260.\  This  official  had  the  rank  of  the  first  bailiff  of  France. 
His  'office'  was  the  Chatelet,  where  he  judged  in  person  the 
greater  part  of  the  civil  and  criminal  cases  in  Paris  and  the 
vicomte;  he  was  judge  of  appeal  from  the  feudal  nobles  and 
ecclesiastics  who  still  had  fiefs  in  Paris.  He  had  charge  of  the 
military  service,  of  the  policing,  the  finance  and  'justice'  of 
Paris  and  its  suburbs.  This  official,  or  the  holder  of  this  office, 
"who  administered  with  firmness  and  loyalty,"  wished  to  cor- 
rect the  faults  incident  to  the  jurisdiction  over  the  gilds,  by 
establishing  in  writing  the  'constitution'  of  each  gild.  The 
masters  of  the  gilds  accordingly  presented  their  regulations, 
and  the  result  is  a  register  of  the  laws  and  customs  of  101 
craft-gilds  of  Paris.^  Some  of  the  priviliges  or  implied  immu- 
nities pretend  exceeding  antiquity.  The  stone-cutters  claim 
immunity  from  the  duty  of  the  watch  from  the  time  of  Charles 
Martel.  Upholsterers  cite  privileges  granted  by  Louis  the  VII, 
and  the  bakers  claim  from  Philip  Augustus  the  right  to  exclude 
'foreign'  bakers  (i.e.  bakers  from  outside  Paris),  from  the 
markets  except  on  Saturdays.  What  we  have  then  in  this  in- 
valuable Livre  is  a  cross-section  of  the  commercial  and  indus- 
trial life  of  Paris  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  13th  century.  A 
study  of  this  manuscript  will  show  a  vivid  and  complete  picture 
of  the  working  class,  and,  by  implication,  of  the  upper  nobili- 
ty's commercial  habits. 


^Levasseur:  Hist,  des  classes  ouv.    p.  251. 

2For  a  list  of  these  gilds  with  their  ancient  French  names  and  their 
modern  English  equivalents,  see  Appendix. 


The  gilds  were  composed  of  three  grades  of  individuals : 
apprentices,  valets,  and  masters.  The  term  ouvrier  was  ap- 
plied in  general  to  all  the  divisions,  even  more  loosely  than  our 
term  workman. 

The  apprentice,  though  considered  as  a  member  of  the 
gild,  was  not  of  the  corporation  until  his  apprenticeship  was 
over.  The  term  was  begun  by  a  contract  between  master  and 
aspirant.  Usually  this  contract  was  oral,  because  the  writing 
of  a  document  was  too  expensive  a  process.  At  any  rate,  it 
was  always  a  mutual  engagement,  sworn  to,  before  the  Jures, 
an  engagement  which  imposed  on  both  parties  mutual  duties 
which  neither  should  attempt  to  evade.  A  regulation  concern- 
ing the  agreement  runs  as  follows:  "The  master  who  takes 
an  apprentice  should  summon  to  the  ceremony  of  the  contract 
two  masters  and  two  valets,  to  hear  the  agreement  made  be- 
tween master  and  apprentice,  and  it  is  fitting  that  the  master 
who  guards  the  gild  should  be  called  also.'*  The  Jures  before 
authorizing  the  contract,  were  supposed  to  make  careful  in- 
quiries as  to  the  ability  and  the  financial  position  of  the  master. 

About  forty  of  the  gilds  were  allowed  to  have  as  many 
apprentices  as  they  liked.  Among  these  were  the  corn-dealers, 
/  the  gold-beaters,  the  ale-brewers,  green-grocers,  farriers, 
drawers  of  iron  wire,  millers,  shoe-makers  and  the  barilliers. 
Usually,  however,  the  number  was  limited  to  one  or  two.  The 
mercers,  the  fullers,  weavers  of  silk-stuffs,  knife-handle  and 
blade  makers  were  allowed  to  have  two,  while  the  rope-makers, 
pewterers,  precious  stone  dealers,  braid-makers,  drapers,  gold- 
smiths, and  shield-makers  contented  themselves  with  one. 
The  motives  for  such  limitation  were  at  least  double :  the  altru- 
istic reason  was  that  the  master  should  not  have  too  many  to 
teach  well ;  the  self -protective  reason  was  that  the  gild  should 
at  no  time  be  swamped  in  competition  by  too  many  (prospec- 
tive) masters. 

The  term  of  apprenticeship  was  also  most  scrupulously 
fixed.  The  conditions  are  usually  a  definite  term  without  pay- 
ment of  fee  or  a  term  gradually  lessened  according  to  the  in- 
crease in  the  size  of  the  fee.  The  haberdashers  and  the  pewter- 
ers could  fix  the  duration  of  apprenticeship  at  will;  other 
terms  vary  from  3  to  8  ,to  10-12  years,  with  fees  varying  from 
20  Parisian  sous  (5  fr.)  to  100  Parisian  sous  (20  fr.),  by 
means  of  which  the  apprentice  could  buy  off  part  of  his  time 


/ 


of  service.  There  seems,  however,  to  have  been  no  attempt  to 
make  the  time  directly  proportionate  to  the  costliness  of  the 
raw  material  and  the  difficulty  of  the  process,  or  the  skill  re- 
quired in  the  craft.  The  rope-makers  require  an  apprentice- 
ship of  4  years,  the  brass-wire  drawers  6  years,  the  chest- 
makers  7  years,  the  makers  of  iron  shields  8  years,  the  curriers 
of  shoe-leather  9,  the  jewellers  10,  and  the  coral  and  shell  bead- 
makers  12  years.  The  wool-weavers  demand  4  years  plus  4 
livres,  5  years  and  3  livres,  6  years  and  one  livre,  or  7  years 
without  fee.  Power  over  the  length  of  term  resided  of  course 
in  the  hands  of  the  masters,  and  the  rules  contain  only  the 
minimum  requirement.  We  read,  "No  one  can  or  ought  to  take 
or  have  more  than  two  apprentices,  and  he  cannot  take  them 
for  less  than  7  years  of  service  and  twenty  sous  of  Paris,  which 
apprentices  must  give  to  the  masters;  or  at  7  years  without 
money,  but  more  money  and  longer  service  he  can  require  if 
need  be."  How  irrational  the  terms  were  may  be  seen  from 
the  fact  that  while  the  goldsmith's  term  is  10  years,  the  brass- 
wire  drawers  (a  far  less  "skilled"  gild)  required  10  years  and 
20  sous,  or  12  years  and  no  fee,  and  that  of  three  bead-making^ 
gilds,  one  demanded  6  years  and  46  sous,  another  10  years  and 
46  sous,  and  the  third  12  years  without  possible  shortening  of 
the  term.  If  the  apprentice,  however,  bought  off  part  of  his 
regular  term,  the  master  was  not  permitted  to  take  another 
apprentice  till  the  complete  period  was  over.  An  extr^  ap- 
prentice was  sometimes  allowed  if  the  wife  of  a  master  knew 
the  trade.  "No  one  of  the  craft  aforesaid  can  have  more  than 
one  apprentice,  and  if  he  has  a  wife,  can  have  only  one  if  she 
does  not  know  the  trade,  but  if  the  man  and  the  woman  know 
the  trade,  they  can  have  two  apprentices,  but  they  can  have  as 
many  valets  as  they  wish."  Among  the  masons,  a  Jure  could 
have  two  apprentices,  the  other  masters  could  employ  only  one. 
Exceptions  to  rules  of  apprenticeship  were  made  for  thej 
sons  of  masters,  or  of  their  wives,  and  in  this  beginning  of  | 
family  privileges,  we  see  foreshadowed  the  tyranny  of  the ' 
close-corporation  control  of  the  gild  in  latter  centiiries.  All 
the  sons  of  the  master  and  his  wife,  if  she  knows  the  trade, 
may  rise  to  the  'mastery'  usually  with  no  fixed  term  of  ap- 
prenticeship. If  the  children  were  illegitimate,  no  privileges 
were  granted  them.  In  the  case  of  the  goldsmith  we  see  still 
wider  family  privileges,  for  we  read  "of  his  lineage  and  of  the 


6 

lineage  of  his  wife,  whether  distant  or  close,  he  can  have  as 
many  (apprentices)  as  he  wishes."  The  wool-weaver  was 
allowed  in  his  house  two  large  looms  and  one  small  one  for 
himself  and  for  each  of  his  married  sons,  and  one  loom  each 
for  a  brother  and  a  nephew,  if  they  "knew  how  to  work  with 
their  hands."  In  the  gild  of  the  iron  shield-makers  and  several 
others,  appears  the  obligation  of  teaching  the  son  of  a  poor 
master  or  his  orphans  free. 

The  conditions  of  the  contract  of  apprenticeship  shed 
much  light  on  the  lives  of  these  little  workmen,  and  the  statutes 
recognize  the  possibility  of  their  being  led  astray  by  "  leur 
folour  et  leur  jolivete."  The  apprentice,  we  are  told,  should 
obey  all  the  orders  of  the  master,  and  not  complain  without 
justice  of  the  master*s  oppression  to  the  prud'hommes  of  the 
gild.  He  had  to  clean  the  workshop,  run  errands  for  the  fam- 
ily and  for  the  business.  That  apprentices  were  not  always 
docile,  nor  their  circumstances  congenial,  the  many  rules  deal- 
ing with  their  flight  suggest.  An  apprentice  who  had  taken 
flight  from  his  master  could  not  be  received  into  the  workshop 
of  another  member  of  the  gild  until  the  complete  period  of  his 
apprenticeship  contract  had  elapsed.  The  pater-notriers  had 
to  wait  a  year  and  a  day  after  the  flight  of  an  apprentice,  and 
the  tablet-makers  26  weeks,  before  taking  in  another.  After 
three  attempts  to  escape,  all  obligation  between  gild  and  ap- 
prentice ceased.  "And  this  regulation  the  prud'hommes  of  the 
gild  make  to  restrain  the  folly  and  jollity  of  the  apprentices, 
for  they  do  great  harm  to  their  masters  and  themselves,  when 
they  run  away;  for  when  the  apprentice  is  enrolled  to  learn, 
and  runs  away  in  a  month  or  two,  he  forgets  as  much  as  he 
has  learned,  and  thus  he  wastes  his  time  and  does  harm  to  his 
master."  The  wool-weavers  and  the  locksmiths  insisted  that 
the  escaping  apprentice  pay  the  master  what  his  training  had 
cost. 

The  statutes  recognize  the  right  of  the  master  to  sell  the 
apprentice  to  another  master  under  certain  circumstances. 
"No  cutler  can  sell  his  apprentice  unless  he  (the  master)  lies 
on  a  bed  of  sickness  (IH  de  langueur),  or  is  going  across  seas, 
or  is  leaving  the  gild  for  good  or  does  it  because  of  poverty." 

The  master's  obligations  to  the  apprentice  consisted  in 
lodging,  feeding  and  clothing  him  and  in  teaching  him  the 
trade.    That  masters   did  not  always   scrupulously  abide  by 


these  duties,  various  law-suits  and  regies  attest.  Only  the 
tablet-makers  and  the  important  wool-merchants,  provide,  in 
their  statutes,  for  a  defence  of  the  apprentice's  rights.  There 
we  find  that  if  the  master  fails  in  his  duties,  the  gild  masters, 
upon  complaint  of  the  apprentice,  "must  admonish  the  said 
master,  and  if  he  does  not  comply,  they  must  seek  out  a  new 
master  for  the  apprentice."  In  another  place,  we  learn  of  a 
fine  imposed  on  the  master  who  provoked  his  apprentice  to 
flight. 

A  decree  from  the  Chatelet :  3  Sept.,  1399,  gives  a  living 
vignette  of  these  domestic  relations  a  century  after  our  period.^ 
"We  have  enjoined  and  commanded  the  said  master  that  he 
treat  the  said  Larin,  his  apprentice,  as  the  son  of  a  prud'homme 
should  be  treated,  and  that  he  abide  by  the  matters  contained 
in  the  said  contract,  without  having  him  beaten  by  his  wife, 
but  that  he  should  beat  him  himself  if  he  misbehaved."  In  the 
same  year  also  a  father  succeeded  in  breaking  his  son's  con- 
tract because  the  goldsmith,  the  boy's  master,  by  hitting  him 
with  a  bunch  of  keys,  had  "made  a  hole  in  his  head." 

The  possible  marriage  of  an  apprentice  during  the  term 
of  his  service  is  provided  for  thus :  "If  any  apprentice  marries 
during  the  time  that  he  has  promised  to  serve  his  master,  and 
does  not  wish  to  eat  dinner  and  supper  with  his  master,  he 
ought  to  have  four  deniers  every  working  day  for  his  support." 

It  is  not  very  clear  from  our  texts,  whether  an  examina- 
tion at  the  end  of  his  term  was  usual  or  infrequent.  Only 
rarely  is  the  demand  for  a  chef-d'oeuvre  mentioned.  The 
saddle-bow  makers  claim  that  after  an  apprentice  has  made 
his  chef-d'oeuvre  he  should  become  more  important  in  the 
workshop  "so  that  his  master  may  not  send  him  out  into  the 
city  to  fetch  his  bread  and  his  wine  just  like  a  boy."  The  gold- 
smith's statutes  provide  that  if  he  becomes  skilful  enough  to 
pay  his  expenses  and  to  earn  100  sous  a  year,  he  may  be  freed 
from  his  contract  and  allowed  to  earn  a  salary.  At  the  end  of 
the  period,  however,  any  apprentice  must  declare  before  the 
Jures  on  his  oath  that  he  had  fulfilled  his  term  according  to 
contract. 


^Fagniez:  fitudes  sur  Tindustrie  a  Paris,  p.  67. 


8 

To  our  mind,  the  apprentice  system  here  revealed  does  not 
seem  devised  for  the  best  interest  of  the  child.  Too  much 
power  for  good  or  ill  lies  with  the  master.  If  he  so  wishes, 
there  seems  to  be  little  to  prevent  his  letting  his  charge  remain 
in  a  state  of  childish  and  unprofessional  ignorance.  The  long 
term  of  service,  the  wide  power  of  master  upon  man  seem  de- 
vised to  add  to  the  master's  profits,  not  to  his  charge's  skill. 

The  nalet^-sergent  or  aloue,  i.e.  hired  man,  was  an  indi- 
vidual who  had  finished  his  term  of  service  as  apprenticeship 
but  had  not  yet  risen  to  the  dignity,  as  master,  of  having  an 
establishment  of  his  own.  Women  of  this  grade,  in  gilds  to 
which  they  were  admitted,  were  called  chambrieres  or  meschin- 
ettes.  Usually  the  master  could  have  as  many  valets  as  he 
wished,  but  occasionally  the  number  was  limited  so  as  to  pre- 
vent rich  and  attractive  workshops  getting  many  valets,  and, 
accordingly,  something  approaching  a  monopoly  of  the  trade. 

A  valet  who  had  been  trained  outside  Paris  had  to  present 
evidence  that  he  had  done  the  preliminary  term  elsewhere.  Of 
such  a  man,  too,  it  was  possible  to  require  a  kind  of  surety  or 
testimonial  of  a  fair  dismissal  from  a  former  employer.  Evi- 
dently the  narrow  mediaeval  view  of  protection  of  home  indus- 
tries led  to  the  discriminations  against  workmen  from  outside,. 
for  we  read,  "It  is  ordered  and  decreed  that  no  person  of  the 
said  gild  should  hire  any  foreign  man  so  long  as  he  can  find  a 
workman  who  is  a  member  of  the  gild."  Care  was  taken  too 
that  disgrace  and  scandal  should  not  fall  upon  the  gild  through 
valets  of  bad  character.  Reveurs,  scoundrels,  murderers, 
knaves,  thieves,  men  of  ill  fame"  are  stipulated  as  improper 
candidates,  and  a  wool-weaver  whose  relations  with  a  woman 
were  a  by-word  "was  sent  out  of  the  city  and  forbidden  the 
trade  until  he  should  amend  his  character." 

The  length  of  the  term  of  hire  is  not  definitely  stated  in 
our  regulations,  and  it  varied  from  a  day,  a  week,  a  month,  to 
a  year.  In  the  morning  all  unemployed  valets  assembled  early 
in  a  designated  street  or  square.  There  they  were  to  stay  untfl 
the  bell  from  a  certain  church  sounded.  No  private  individual 
could  hire  an  artisan.  If  a  bargain  was  made,  the  valet  went 
to  the  house  of  his  employer  at  dawn  and  stayed  under  usual 
conditions  till  sunset.  The  hours  accordingly  varied  largely, 
from  14  hours  in  summer  to  8  in  winter.  Very  few  valets 
lodged  and  ate  with  their  patron.    They  'went  out'  in  search  of 


their  noonday-meal  with  the  provision  that,  after  it,  they 
should  not  loiter  to  wait  for  a  fellow-workman.  If  the  gild 
was  one  which  allowed  night-work,  and  the  master  desired  it 
of  him,  the  aloue  must  comply  for  a  raise  of  pay.  Sometimes 
the  valets  rebelled  against  this  compulsion,  and  were  threaten- 
ed by  the  magistrates  for  this  attempt  at  industrial  freedom. 
In  only  one  case  is  vacation  mentioned,  but  as  we  shall  see  in 
discussing  the  chomage,  there  was  little  need  of  it.  The  brass- 
wire  drawers  stipulate,  however,  that  the  workmen  may  have 
a  vacation  in  the  month  of  August  if  they  wish. 

Women  were  admitted  to  membership  in  gilds  where 
their  delicate  skill  and  taste  made  them  useful.  In  1292  the 
group  dealing  with  embroidery  was  composed  of  81  women 
and  12  men. 

Occasionally  conditions  of  employment  are  stated  with 
more  detail.  A  rule  of  the  sword-cutlers  runs  this :  "  No^ 
master  should  take  a  valet  to  work  unless  he  has  five  sets  of 
clothes  with  him  in  order  that  the  workmen  may  look  neat  in 
case  the  nobles,  counts,  barons,  knights,  and  other  good  folk 
should  at  any  time  come  into  the  work-room."  The  valet  could 
not  be  dismissed  unreasonably,  and  rarely  the  provision  is 
made  that  two  valets  and  two  masters  must  agree  upon  the 
dismissal  before  it  could  take  effett.  After  a  year  and  a  day, 
the  valet  could  have  his  wife  come  and  work  with  him,  if  the 
gild  admitted  women. 

A  considerable  distinction  between  masters  and  valets 
already  existed,  though  in  the  smaller  organizations  the  gulf 
was  less  apparent.  There  were  no  large  factories  in  the  mod- 
ern meaning,  and  in  a  small  workshop  conditions  of  equality 
were  more  likely  to  obtain.  Several  facts  show,  however,  that 
the  valets  in  some  places  were  beginning  to  feel  themselves 
a  distinct  industrial  class.  Infrequently  they  had  their  own 
confrerie  and  their  own  jures.  The  masters  in  some  cities 
already  foresaw  the  possibilities  of  a  kind  of  class-struggle, 
and  at^  Beauvais  punished  with  imprisonment  and  fine  men 
who  attempted  combinations  in  the  hope  of  raising  wages.  In 
1280  at  Ypres,  workmen  rebelled  against  an  ordinance  adding 


iReglemens  sur  les  arts  et  les  met.    ed.  Depping,  p.  366. 
^"Coutumes  de  Beauvaisis."    Beaumanoir,  ed.  Beugnot;  p.  429. 


10 

one  hour  to  their  working  day,  and  in  their  rioting  killed  the 
mayor.  Of  course  they  were  severely  punished.  (But  how 
modern  these  actions  prove  our  industrial  class  of  the  Middle 
Ages  to  be.) 

The  obtaining  of  the  mastership  or  mastery  of  a  gild,  i.e. 
the  right  to  set  up  a  workshop,  to  go  into  business,  depended 
on  certain  qualifications  in  the  aspirants,  and  certain  formal 
ceremonies,  necessitated  by  the  organization  of  the  gild,  and 
its  (frequent)  feudal  relationship  to  the  king  or  his  officiaL 
The  first  requirement  was  skill,  acquired  during  service  as  ap- 
prentice and  valet,  capital,  upright  character  and  good  conduct. 
Most  of  the  sections  have  such  an  article  as  "Quiconques  veut 
estre  de  tel  mestier,  estre  le  peut  poertant  qu'il  sache  le  mestier, 
et  ait  de  coi,"  and  an  article  of  the  drapiers  reads:  "II  con- 
viendra  qu'il  sache  faire  le  mestier  de  touz  poinz,  le  soy,  sans 
conseil  au  ayde  d'autruy  et  qu'il  a  ce  examine  par  les  gardes 
du  mestier."  The  cook's  regulations  require  that  the  son  of  a 
master  have  an  expert  in  his  bake-house  until  the  masters 
judged  the  son  skilful  enough.  This  article  was  evidently  de- 
signed to  counteract  the  carelessness  of  regulation  of  the 
apprentice-work  of  sons.  The  formal  requirement  was  the 
purchase  of  the  right  to  trade.  At  the  most  25  gilds  were  re- 
quired to  purchase  this  right,  the  rest  were  "free."  Among 
these  who  purchased  were  the  bakers,  the  criers  of  wine, 
the  retailers  of  bread  and  vegetables,  the  farriers,  the  cutlers, 
lock-smiths,  weavers  of  silk  cloth,  masons,  hose-makers,  poul- 
terers, potters,  old-clothes  dealers,  purse-makers,  saddlers, 
shoe-makers,  glovers,  and  fishermen.  The  necessity  was 
created  by  the  fact  that  about  30  of  the  gilds  were  fiefs  of  the 
king,  and  accordingly  could  be  reserved  for  himself,  or  be- 
stowed upon  his  favorite  oflficers.  In  general,  however,  those 
the  king  retained  for  himself,  notably,  the  dealers  in  food- 
necessities,  were  free  of  purchase. 

After  purchasing  the  right  from  the  king,  the  aspirant 
had  usually  to  present  himself  within  a  week  to  be  admitted  to 
the  corporation.  At  a  solemn  meeting  the  masters  or  jures 
"read  loudly"  and  explained  the  regulations.  The  recipient  of 
the  privilege  then  swore  by  the  saints'  relics  that  he  would 
keep  the  laws  and  carry  on  his  profession  carefully  and  loyally. 
Initiation  fees  were  of  course  variable;  the  criers  paid  the 
jures  4  deniers  (0  fr.  .45),  the  silk-cloth  weavers  and  hose- 


11 

makers  10  sows  (2  fr.  .50)  ;  theepiciers  paid  5  sous-  pour  boire 
to  their  companions.  The  time  for  paying  this  fee  also  varied. 
The  curriers  of  shoe-leather  were  allowed  to  pay  their  fee  a 
year  and  a  day  after  establishment,  while  the  bakers  were  re- 
strained only  by  a  limit  of  four  years.  The  widow  of  a  master 
was  generously  permitted  to  carry  on  the  business  in  his  stead, 
though  usually  if 'she  remarried  a  stranger,  i.e.  a  man  outside 
the  gild,  she  forfeited  this  right. 

M.  Lespinasse  makes  an  interesting  distinction  in  affirm- 
ing that  the  mastership  was  not  a  rank,  but  a  privilege ;  it  was 
not  a  case  of  'once  a  master,  always  a  master.'  Upon  the  re- 
linquishment of  the  activity  and  privileges  implied,  a  master 
became  an  artisan,  and,  for  instance,  the  hose-makers  assert 
that  35  masters  among  them  have  fallen  into  poverty.  The 
master  with  all  his  attempts  to  protect  his  position  and  rights, 
bore  the  not-light  burden  of  taxation  from  which  the  valets 
were  directly,  at  least,  exempt. 

The  internal  administration  of  the  gild  was  performed  by 
officers  called  jtures  or  prud'hqmmes,  and  the  external  relation 
of  the  gild  in  its  d^alihgs"  with  other  gilds  or  the  city  was 
supervised  by  the  Crown  or  the  Crown  official  who  held  the 
gild  in  fief.  The  jures  were  also  called  gardes,  syndics,  es- 
wards,  elus.  The  typical  method  of  choice  was  the  election  of 
a  certain  number  by  the  masters  of  the  gild,  and  their  ratifica- 
tion and  investiture  by  the  Provost  of  Paris  or  other  Crown 
official.  Sometimes,  however,  the  Provost  or  Crown  officer 
appointed  the  guards  with  no  semblance  of  suggestion,  in 
theory  at  least,  from  the  gild  itself.  Occasionally  the  election 
was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  the  community. .  Sometimes  the 
departing  prud'hommes  nominated  their  successors.  Among 
the  haberdashers,  failure  to  serve,  if  one  were  elected,  called 
down  upon  him  a  fine  of  10  livres  (134  fr.) .  The  term  of  office 
was  usually  a  year.  The  goldsmiths,  however,  changed  their 
officers  only  every  three  years.  The  fullers,  who  had  two  mas- 
ters and  two  valets  as  officers,  changed  them  at  Christmas  and 
at  St.  John's  Day.  Before  the  Provost,  the  valets  named  two 
masters,  and  the  masters  two  valets,  for  service,  a  nice  balance 
in  the  interest  of  just  administration.    Women  were  allowed 

2It  has  been  estimated  that  four  sous  of  Paris  of  this  period  are 
equivalent  to  one  franc  at  present. 


12 

offices  for  such  gilds  as  they  were  important  in.  The  workers 
in  silk-stuffs  had  three  masters  and  three  mistresses;  the 
weavers  of  kerchiefs  three  mattresses. 

In  being  invested  with  office,  the  jures,  for  instance,  of  the 
bakers  swore  on  the  relics  of  the  saints  that  they  would  'guard 
the  gild'  carefully  and  loyally,  and  that  in  appraising  bread, 
they  would  spare  neither  relatives  nor  friends,  nor  condemn 
anyone  wrongly  through  hatred  or  ill-feeling.  The  chiefs  of 
the  gilds  scrutinized  the  quality  of  the  products,  denounced 
frauds  and  infractions  of  the  rules,  presided  at  solemn  con- 
claves of  the  gild,  and  represented  it  before  the  law.  They 
presided  at  the  contract  of  apprenticeship,  received  the  oaths 
of  artisans  and  masters,  and  administered  the  funds  of  the 
corporation.  In  case  of  appeal  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
jures,  the  Provost  of  Paris  was  the  first  authority,  and  above 
him  was  the  Parlement  de  Paris.  On  the  lands  of  a  feudal  lord, 
the  latter  usually  retained  the  privilege  of  administering  petty 
justice. 

The  question  of  remuneration  to  the  jures  for  loss  of  time 
naturally  arises.  Usually  a  definite  fraction  of  the  fines  was 
awarded  to  them.  Besides,  too,  the  honor  which  accrued  to 
them,  exemptions  from  the  duty  of  the  watch  and  from  certain 
of  the  fines  of  the  trade,  are  mentioned. 

Most  gilds  had  officers  of  only  one  rank  upon  whom  all  the 
duties  fell.  Occasionally  discrimination  was  made,  and  two 
superior  officers  chosen  from  the  masters  held  the  power  of 
handing  down  decisions  while  their  valet-SLSsistsmts  exercised 
supervision,  and  reported  infractions  of  the  rules  to  the  mas- 
ters. Perhaps  the  most  frequent  number  of  jures  in  a  gild  was 
two  or  four.  The  armorers,  the  ironshield  makers,  the  potters, 
the  rope-makers,  bead-makers,  gold-beaters,  braid-makers, 
spinners  of  silk,  etc.,  had  two,  the  fullers,  the  tallow-chandlers 
four.  The  brass-shield  makers  were  so  few  that  they  did  not 
elect  a  jure,  but  asked  the  Provost  to  hear  their  cases  directly. 
Only  one  guard  is  mentioned  in  the  statutes  of  the  clasp- 
makers  and  the  flower-hat  makers.  The  curriers  have  three, 
the  farriers  six,  the  goldsmiths  two  or  three,  the  head-dress 
makers  eight,  and  later  only  four.  The  bakers  and  the  retail- 
ers of  fruit  and  vegetables  had  twelve  officers. 

The  most  feudal  feature  of  the  craft-gild  organization  is, 
perhaps,  the  dependence  of  the  gild  on  the  Crown  or  its  offi- 


13 

• 

cials  or  vassals.  Most  of  the  gilds  were  dependent  upon  (rele- 
vaient  a)  the  Prevot  de  Paris.  To  him  the  prud'hommes  car- 
ried complaints,  against  other  gilds,  for  example,  and  it  was 
he  who  appointed  a  prud'homme  to  execute  for  him  the  func- 
tions suggested  above.  We  have  seen  that  Louis  the  Younger 
granted  to  a  woman  the  'mastery'  of  five  gilds,  which  remained 
enfieffed  to  the  sixteenth  century.  The  grand  pantler  was  the 
judge  of  the  bakers,  and  each  year  appointed  a  master  to  look 
after  the  gild.  The  grand  chamberlain  looked  after  the  wool- 
weavers,  haberdashers,  tailors  and  upholsterers,  and  others 
who  had  to  do  with  clothing  and  furnishings;  the  cup-bearer 
(echanson)  had  the  wine  merchants,  and  the  marechal  the 
smiths,  farriers,  helmeters,  locksmiths  and  other  iron- workers. 
The  grand  butler  tried  to  keep  order  among  the  wine-shop 
keepers.  To  his  mason,  Guillaume  a  Saint  Patrie,  the  king 
confided  the  masons,  stone-breakers,  plasterers,  etc. 

Exact  hours  for  work  were  not  set  down ;  the  time  of  the 
world  in  which  the  artisan  lived  was  too  entirely  dominated 
by  the  custom  of  the  Church  to  permit  of  hours  being  desig- 
nated as  7  a.m.  to  5  p.m.  "No  one  of  the  gild,"  we  read,  "ought 
to  work  on  holy  days  which  the  people  of  the  city  keep,  nor  on 
Saturdays  during  charnage  (i.e.  the  time  during  which  it  was 
permitted  to  eat  meat)  after  Vespers,  nor  after  Compline  on 
Saturdays  during  Lent,  nor  at  night  at  any  time  of  the  year." 
During  Lent,  Vespers  fell  at  6  o'clock,  and  Compline  at  9. 
Charnage  was  used  loosely  to  mean  not  only  the  period  during 
which  meat  could  be  eaten,  but  also  the  perod  of  short  days, 
while  Careme  meant  the  period  of  long  days.  Night  work  was 
expressly  forbidden  for  goldsmiths,  sheath-makers,  weavers, 
braid-,  chest-,  iDuckles-,  beads-makers,  pewterers,  lamp-maKers 
and  locksmith's,  "for  the  light  at  night  does  not  suffice  for  the 
trade  [s]  aforesaid."  Millers  and  brewers  could  work  day  and 
night,  and  it  was  permitted  to  all  farriers  (but  not  to  locksmiths 
and  cutlers),  to  goldsmiths,  lamp-makers,  brass-wire  drawers, 
to  cast,  if  need  be,  during  the  night,  inasmuch  as  the  process 
sometimes  lasted  a  day  or  a  week.  The  restriction  upon  night- 
work  was  ineffective  if  the  work  were  for  the  ihousehold  of  the 
King,  the  Queen,  the  Princes  of  the  blood,  the  Bishop  of  Paris, 
and  other  great  Lords. 

The  Church's  observance  of  Sundays  and  fastdays  (holy 
days)  caused  among  the  gilds  much  cessation  from  work — 


14 

chomage.  The  eve  of  Sunday  and  important  holy  days,  work 
was  stopped  at  Nones  or  Compline.  On  Sunday  the  baths  were 
not  heated,  on  Sunday  the  bakers  did  not  make  bread,  and  kept, 
besides,  twenty-six  fast-days  and  the  day  of  their  Patron  Saint. 
The  goldsmiths,  the  haberdashers,  the  felt-hat  makers,  took 
turns  within  the  gild  in  keeping  their  shops  open  on  Sunday. 
The  barilliers  and  the  armorers  worked  without  restriction  on 
the  ground  that  their  work  was  vitally  important  to  noblemen. 
A  saddler  could  repair  a  shield  or  a  harness  on  Sunday,  and 
rose-chaplets  could  be  made  at  any  time  "during  the  season  of 
roses." 

Inasmuch  as  the  policy  of  the  gilds  proscribed  the  action 
of  free  competition,  it  was  necessary  for  them,  in  order  to  sus- 
tain their  reputation,  to  provide  in  some  way,  that  the  products 
should  be  exactly  what  they  pretended  to  be.  To  this  end  they 
legislated  carefully  as  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  raw 
material  to  be  used,  and  provided  for  supervision  through  the 
stages  of  manufacture  to  the  sale  of  the  finished  product.  The 
cervoise  (a  drink  somewhat  resembling  ale)  should  have  no 
constituents  save  grain  and  water.  The  beater  of  metal-leaves 
must  have  a  certain  alloy  of  gold  in  his  silver  leaves.  The  bead- 
makers  must  not  string  beads  which  are  not  perfectly  rounded. 
The  haberdashers  complain  of  the  appearance  of  "several 
pieces  of  bad  work  to  the  damafife  of  all  the  common  weal,  every 
day,  by  reason  of  the  lack  of  proper  restriction."  At  Amiens,^ 
the  locksmiths  were  forbidden,  for  fear  of  thievery,  to  make  a 
key  unless  the  lock  was  produced,  and  the  butchers  to  souffler 
la  viande,  to  mix  tallow  in  the  lard,  to  sell  dog,  cat  or  horse 
flesh.  In  Paris,  boxes  whose  locks  were  made  with  'hinges' 
were  summarily  burned,  and  fines  were  incurred  for  putting 
old  locks  on  new  furniture  and  new  locks  on  old  furniture. 
Trimmings  of  silver  were  forbidden  on  bone  knife-handles  for 
fear  the  makers  should  sell  them  for  ivory,  and  knife-handles 
must  not  be  covered  with  silk,  brass-  or  pewter-wire,  lead  or 
iron,  because  inside,  they  were  only  deal,  and  might  deceive  an 
ignorant  buyer.  Hemp  and  flax  must  not  be  used  in  the  same 
rope.^    If  a  tailor  spoilt  a  valuable  piece  of  cloth  by  bad  cut- 


iComm.  d'Amiens,  Doc.  inedits,  p.  387,  p.  370. 
^Lev. :  Hist,  des  classes  ouv.,  vol.  I,  page  116. 


15 

ting,  and  the  gardes  ascertained  it,  he  had  to  make  restitution 
to  the  client,  and  pay  a  fine,  3  sous  to  the  king  and  2  sous  to 
the  confrerie.  If  an  artisan  did  the  spoiling,  he  paid  the  mas- 
ter, and  worked  for  one  day,  without  pay,  for  the  confrerie.^ 
Chandlers  seem  to  have  been  especially  open  to  temptation. 
Too  heavy  a  weight  of  wick  is  expressly  regulated  against  in 
the  provision  that  four  pounds  of  tallow  should  carry  only  a 
quarter-pound  of  wick.  Wax  tapers  must  not  be  adulterated 
with  tallow\ 

Gilds  in  danger  of  usurping  each  other's  business  were 
jealous  of  privileges.  A  tailor  must  not  mend  old  clothes,  nor 
a  rag-man  make  new  clothes.  A  curious  controversy  arose 
from  the  fact  that  clothes  restored  by  the  old-clothes  dealers 
were  frequently  mistaken  for  new.  It  was  finally  decided  that 
this  latter  gild  must  not  press,  fold  and  hang  old  garments  for 
fear  of  this  deception. 

The  visits  of  the  gardes  were  at  unexpected  times,  ajid 
almost  all  the  gilds  require  their  inspection  of  saleable  articles 
"poer  sauvoir  se  il  i  a  nulles  mesprantures."  The  gardes  of 
the  weavers  carried  an  iron  rule  on  which  was  marked  the 
length  of  various  kinds  of.  cloth,  as  it  was  fixed  by  law.  Goods 
which  did  not  comply  with  the  statutes  were  confiscated, 
burned  or  given  to  the  poor,  while  the  culprit  paid  a  fine.  To 
make  sure  that  no  bad  product  elude  the  vigilance  of  the 
guards,  further  regulations  as  to  the  place  of  manufacture 
appear.  A  wool-weaver  could  not  have  two  shops  on  either 
side  of  the  street,  though  we  have  seen  how  liberal  he  might 
be  as  to  the  number  of  looms.  An  armorer  was  not  to  get  any- 
thing necessary  for  his  trade  made  outside  the  shop,  therefore 
he  was  forbidden  to  carry  armor  through  the  streets  unless 
he  were  poor  and  lived  in  an  out-of-the-way  quarter 
where  sales  would  be  difficult.  The  tailor  must  not  cut  his 
cloth  except  at  a  window  of  the  first  floor  of  his  shop. 

Fines  ranging  from  three  to  ten  sous  were  the  natural  con- 
sequence of  faulty  production.  The  corrupt  gold-beater  paid 
3  sous,  the  jewellers,  who  dared  use  colored  glass,  10  sous,  the 
dealers  in  silk-stuffs  paid  8  sous,  of  which  5  went  to  the  King, 
2  to  the  Master,  and  1  to  the  Confrerie.    In  1312,  dealers  in 


^Ordonnances  touchant  les  met.,  1312.     Art.  5. 


16 

spices  who  purveyed  fausse  merchandise  were  condemned  to 
lose  their  commodities,  and  to  pay,  besides,  60  sous :  "40  to  us 
(i.e.  the  King,  or  to  the  lord  of  the  place  where  justice  is  done) , 
and  20  sous  to  the  master  of  the  gild  at  or  near  the  place  where 
the  offence  is  committed" — to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  gild.  As 
a  further  guard  against  adulterated  products,  most  of  the 
gilds  had  a  mark  or  a  seal  which  carried  a  guarantee  of  quality 
commensurate  with  the  reputation  of  the  gild. 

Before  goods  could  be  sold,  those  who  had  the  right  to 
weighing  and  measuring  apparatus  in  their  own  houses,  must 
have  these  sealed  by  the  measurers  and  gaugers'  gild.  Others 
must  use  the  scale  of  the  king  or  his  vassal.  Most  goods  were 
sold  on  Friday  and  Saturday,  when  the  merchants  shut  up  shop 
and  went  to  the  Holies  where  markets  were  held.  As  a  rule, 
the  gilds  were  opposed  to  the  hawking  of  their  goods — col- 
portage;  they  preferred  the  more  regular  custom  of  the  stalls 
of  the  market.  Here,  too,  they  succeeded  in  legalizing  their 
privileges  against  foreigners.  For  example,  the  bakers  suc- 
ceeded in  preventing  the  sale  of  all  'foreign'  bread  in  the  city 
except  on  Saturdays.  The  municipality  also  watched  after  its 
own  interests  in  the  interests  of  the  crafts.  Merchants  were 
forbidden  to  leave  the  city  before  the  opening  of  the  Fairs,  and 
sales  must  be  transacted  only  in  the  square  of  the  Halles  after 
a  stroke  from  the  great  bell.  The  craft  organizations  them- 
selves were  much  afraid  of  possible  monopolies.  The  weavers, 
dyers  and  fullers  are  expressly  forbidden  to  enter  into  com- 
binations to  fix  a  price  on  goods  or  a  monopoly  on  materials 
"so  as  to  prevent  the  people  of  the  gild  from  having  work 
according  to  their  means."  The  retailers  of  produce  were 
forbidden  to  arrange  for  commodities  in  advance.  ''Retailers 
ought  not  to  buy  in  advance  of  any  merchant  carriage-loads  or 
consignments  of  eggs  and  cheeses,  deliverable  at  his  next  trip, 
or  after  any  delay  whatsoever" ;  such  transactions  are  wrong 
because  they  offer  too  much  uncertainty  and  too  many  frauds 
in  the  conditions  of  delivery.  The  mediaeval  man  feared 
"corners,'  for  he  felt  "the  rich  will  sell  back  everything,  as 
dear  as  it  pleases  them  to  do." 

In  the  market  "good  form"  must  be  observed  between 
members  of  the  same  gild.  One  member  must  not  intrude 
before  a  sale  is  consummated.  "If  anyone  is  in  front  of  the 
stall  or  window  of  a  cook  to  buy  or  bargain  with  the  said  cook, 


17 

and  if  any  of  the  other  cooks  call  him  before  he  has  left  the 
stall  or  window  of  his  own  will,"  the  fine  will  be  5  sous. 

For  the  privileges  implied  in  the  gild  structure,  the  feudal 
authorities  demanded  a  return  in  the  form  of  taxes.  The  gild- 
masters  bore  the  burden  not  only  of  the  civil  taxes  which  all 
citizens  shared,  such  as  the  taille,  the  conduits  and  peages 
(tolls),  but  also  special  commercial  taxes  such  as  the  hauhan, 
the  tonlieu,  and  the  coutume. 

The  hauban,  according  to  Livre  des  Metiers,  Section  I, 
Art.  7,  "is  the  name  appropriate  to  a  tax  assessed  from  ancient 
times,  by  which  it  was  established  that  whoever  should  be  a 
payer  of  hauban  would  have  more  freedom  and  less  taxes  to 
pay  for  his  right  of  trade  and  commerce."  It  was  a  sort  of 
agreement  offering  the  advantage  of  combining  in  one  pay- 
ment a  large  number  of  daily  dues.  For  this  privilege  t^^e 
bakers  owed  6  sous,  the  retailers  of  bread  and  salt,  3  sous,  the 
butchers  6  sous,  the  fishermen,  purse-makers  and  curriers  3 
sous,  the  glovers  3  sous,  8  deniers,  and  the  old-clothes  men  6 
sous  and  8  deniers. 

The  tonlieu,  also  called  the  tax  of  buying  and  selling,  was 
the  real  tax  on  trade.  At  every  sale,  the  merchant  and  the 
customer  owed  a  small  per  cent,  of  the  purchase  to  the  city  or 
lord  who  controlled  the  market.  About  twenty  chapters  of 
Part  II. in  the  Livre  des  Metiers  are  devoted  to  an  elaborate 
schedule  of  this  tax  which  varied  according  as  the  scale  was  at 
shop,  fair  or  market.  In  general,  M.  Lespinasse  estimates,  the 
tonlieu  equalled  4  deniers  per  wagon-load,  2  per  cart-load,  1 
denier  for  beast-of -burden's  load,  and  1  obole  for  a  man's  load. 

The  coutume  was  very  irregularly  shared;  it  usually  fell 
due  at  several  times  through  the  year.  So  the  bakers  owed  6 
deniers  at  Chrstmas  ,22  at  Easter,  and  5  at  St.  John's  Day,  and 
a  tonlieu  of  li/^  deniers  in  bread  or  money  per  week.  The  re- 
tailers of  produce  also  owed  these  taxes  if  they  dealt  in  bread. 
At  any  earlier  period,  the  coutume  was  always  paid  *in  nature,' 
i.e.  in  the  product  itself.  Acordingly,  the  hay-merchants  owed 
a  box  of  new  hay  every  time  the  King  entered  the  city.  The 
wooden-utensils  makers  furnished  seven  casks,  two  feet  long, 
towards  the  up-keep  of  the  King's  cellars,  and  for  this  service 
they  were  excused  from  the  watch.  The  farriers  owed  at  first 
the  fers  du  Roi ;  i.e.  they  had  to  keep  the  saddle-horses  of  the 
court  well  shod.    But  later  this  function  was  compounded  in 


18 

terms  of  money,  due  to  the  royal  marechal  in  consideration  of 
which  he  had  the  horses  shod. 

Another  feudal  obligation  irksome  to  some  of  the  gilds 
was  the  personal  ''duty  of  the  watch" — the  gitet.  As  the  mas- 
ters  of  the  gilds  were  alone  responsible  for  this  important 
service,  it  was  also  called  the  guet  de  metiers.  Each  gild  had 
its  turn  about  every  three  weeks,  when  the  masters  must  go 
at  nightfall  to  the  Chatelet  and  answer  the  roll.  The  watch 
then  lasted  from  curfew  till  the  next  sunrise.  Usually  the 
gilds  which  served  the  aristocracy  most  directly  were  exempt 
from  this  duty.  Among  these  were  the  goldsmitns,  barilliers, 
armorers,  painters,  sculptors,  bow-makers,  flower-  and  plumed- 
hat  makers,  and  haberdashers.  How  irksome  this  duty  had 
become  may  be  inferred  from  two  statutes  in  the  Livre  des 
Metiers.    The  garment-cutters  say : 

"The  prud'hommes  of  the  said  gild  beg  that  they  be  re- 
lieved from  (the  duty  of)  the  watch,  if  it  please  the  King,  on 
account  of  the  fine  clothes  which  they  have  to  make  and  keep 
over  night  which  belong  to  gentlemen,  and  on  account  of  the 
large  number  of  strange  workmen  whom  they  could  not  en- 
tirely trust  to  take  care  of  things,  and  because  they  have  to 
cut  and  sew  clothes  for  gentlemen  both  day  and  night  in 
view  of  the  gentlemen  and  strangers  going  away  at  once,  and 
because  they  have  to  return  the  garment  which  they  make  in 
the  evening,  on  the  morning  of  the  next  day." 

The  old-clothes  dealers  have  two  intimate  and  vivid  arti- 
cles. Art.  33 :  "No  one  who  is  60  years  old,  nor  those  whose 
wives  are  with  child,  so  long  as  they  be  ill,  and  no  one  who  has 
been  bled,  if  he  has  not  been  summoned  before  he  had  himself 
bled,  and  no  one  who  is  going  out  of  the  city,  if  he  has  not  been 
summoned  before  he  goes  out,  need  to  share  the  watch.  But 
they  must  inform  him  who  has  charge  of  the  watch  for  the 
King,  by  means  of  their  men  or  their  neighbors." 

Art.  34 :  "And  the  prud'hommes  of  the  gild  say  that  they 
are  grieved  that,  for  10  years  back,  those  who  have  charge  of 
the  guard  for  the  King,  have  not  been  willing  to  receive  the 
excuse  from  the  above-mentioned  service  from  their  neighbors 
and  their  workmen,  but  make  come  their  wives  themselves, 
either  fair  or  ugly,  either  young  or  old,  or  feeble  or  fat,  to  con- 
vey the  excuse  to  the  lord,  a  thing  which  is  most  ugly  and  most 
grie'  ous — that  a  woman  should  stay  and  sit  at  the  Chatelet 


19 

from  curfew  so  long  as  the  watch  is  out,  and  then  go  away 
with  her  son  or  her  daughter,  or  without  either  of  them, 
through  strange  streets  to  her  home,  and  through  this  message- 
bearing  wrong,  sin,  yea,  villainy  has  been  done." 

Confrerie  is  a  word  not  very  widely  used  in  the  Livre. 
Seventeen  of  the  gilds  display  this  organism.  It  served  to 
systematize  the  religious  impulses  of  the  gild-men's  lives  and 
also  to  control  the  benevolent  activities  of  the  older  structure. 
The  tablet-makers  require  all  salaried  workers  to  join  the  Con- 
frerie,  and  at  a  death  in  the  gild,  a  man  or  woman  from  each 
workshop  must  follow  the  corpse  or  pay  a  fine  of  1/2  pound  of 
wax.  The  confrerie  usually  centered  its  activity  in  a  church 
or  chapel  in  the  district  where  most  of  the  members  lived.  The 
confrerie  of  the  furriers  and  the  upholsterers  shared  VEglise 
des  Innocents;  the  masons  attended  the  Chapelle  de  St.  Bleive; 
the  bakers  St.  Pierre  aux  Liens,  and  the  wine-merchants  and 
brass-shield  makers  St.  Leonard's  chapel  of  church  St.  Merri. 
The  confraternity  usually  put  itself  under  the  protection  of  a 
particular  saint.  The  goldsmiths  chose  St.  Eloi,  and  the  con- 
fraternity had  a  seal  inscribed  "Sigillum  confratrie  sancti 
Elegii  auri  fabrorum." 

The  confrerie's  resources  were  usually  derived  from  ini- 
tiation fees,  subscriptions  and  legacies  from  members,  and  a 
share  of  the  fines  collected  in  the  gild.  The  organization  also 
derived  benefits  from  holding  real  estate.  It  could  transact 
business  and  fall  in  debt.  The  confrerie  of  the  wool-weavers 
owing  600  pounds,  put  a  tax  of  12  sous  on  every  piece  of  cloth 
manufactured  in  Paris.  A  statute  of  the  plasterers  reads :  "If 
he  finds  that  the  proportion  is  not  good,  the  plasterer  shall  pay 
five  sous  as  a  fine :  to  the  Chappelle  Bleive  aforesaid,  two  sous, 
to  the  master  who  guards  the  gild,  two  sous,  and  to  the  one  who 
has  measured  the  plaster  12  deniers.''  When  a  plasterer  took 
an  apprentice  for  less  than  six  years,  he  paid  20  sous  to  the 
Chapelle. 

Part  of  the  funds  acquired  by  the  confrerie  were  used 
for  common  expenses,  and  part  for  benevolent  work.  For 
every  piece  of  cloth  sold  the  wool-merchants  were  supposed  to 
give  a  denier  to  buy  grain  for  the  poor.  The  rich  confraternity 
of  the  goldsmiths  gave  every  Easter  a  dinner  to  the  poor  of  the 
Hotel  Dieu,  while  the  cooks  set  aside  a  third  of  their  fines  to 
maintain  "les  pouvres  vieilles  gens  du  mestier  qui  seront  de- 


20 

cheuz  par  fait  de  marchandise  ou  de  vieillece."  In  1319  the 
vair-furriers  formed  an  association^  with  an  initiation  fee  of 
10  sous  (8  fr.  .40)  and  6  deniers  for  the  secretary,  and  a  week- 
ly subscription  of  one  denier,  the  funds  of  which  were  to  aid 
members  in-  case  of  sickness  or  infirmity  at  the  rate  of  3  sous 
per  week  during  illness,  and  6  sous  in  convalescence.  The 
curriers  mention  the  use  of  funds  from  "la  boite"  to  support 
the  orphans  of  the  gild  or  children  of  poverty-stricken  masters. 
At  the  first  appearance  of  the  confrerie,  the  Church  opposed 
it,  suspecting  in  its  secrecy,  antagonism  or  some  outcroppings 
of  pagan  ritualism.^  Later,  however,  both  Church  and  con- 
frerie profited  by  a  close  relationship.  The  monastery  of  St. 
Trond,  in  return  for  the  right  to  fall  heir  to  the  properties  of 
members  of  the  shearmen  and  fuller's  confrerie  who  died  with- 
out wife  or  child,  maintained  a  hospital  for  the  care  of  its  sick, 
and  conducted  funerals,  while  the  sacristan  and  a  priest  arbi- 
trated on  the  occasion  of  disputes  within  the  gild. 

Conclusion.  The  trade-gild  regime  was  a  defensive  one 
against  the  confused  powers  of  feudalism  and  the  conflicting 
activities  of  competition.  It  protected  the  apprentice  against 
his  own  folly  and  his  master ;  it  protected  the  artisan  against 
diminution  in  the  pay-rate,  illegal  dismissal,  and  the  usurpa- 
tion of  other  trades  on  his  field.  It  guarded  the  master  from 
insubordination,  idleness,  bad  measure  and  adulteration,  and 
by  the  limitation  of  the  number  of  workmen  assured  the  sale 
of  his  goods. 

'  Some  of  the  principles  implied  in  the  organization  we 
may  agree  with  M.  Lespinasse^  are  "relatively  true,"  such  as 
the  protection  of  infant  industry,  guarantee  of  work  and  pro- 
perty, examinations  and  probations  to  make  certain  the  skill 
of  the  candidates;  prohibition  of  combination  of  several  pro- 
fessions to  prevent  the  abusive  use  of  them;  supervision  of 
manufacture  to  assure  the  soundness  of  the  product ;  an  indus- 


2Fagniez:  "Etudes  sur  Findustrie,"  p.  290.      Text    in  Doc.  relatifs, 
No.  19. 

^M.  Lespinasse  quotes  the  text  of  a  decree  against  confrerie  from  a 
Council  at  Rouen,  1189. 

^Liv.  des  Met.  Avant  Propos  par  M.  Lespinasse,  p.  xiv. 


21 

trial  jurisdiction  from  apprenticeship  to  mastery,  lack  of  divi- 
sion in  a  craft  such  as  to  train  in  time  a  fully  equipped  work- 
man and  a  future  master;  supression  of  any  parasitic 
intermediary  between  producer  and  consumer;  work  in  com- 
mon and  in  the  public  eyes,  and  solidarity  of  the  industrial 
family. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  shadows  in  the  picture,  and 
among  them  we  may  distinguish — the  immoderate  extension 
of  term  of  apprenticeship,  difficulties  set  in  the  way  of  becom- 
ing a  master;  arbitrary  fiscal  measures  and  dues;  meticulous 
regulation  and  too  frequent  cessation  from  work;  a  routine 
transmission  of  methods  of  manufacture;  maintenance  of  a 
fixed  price,  and  prohibitions  of  combinations  such  as  would 
encourage  inventions  and  stimulate  a  wider  economic  unit. 

We  have  studied  a  particularly  agreeable  phase  of  gild 
growth.  Far  off  still  is  the  bad  opposition  between  employee 
and  employed,  though  the  pessimist  may  see  the  seeds  of  the 
present  in  this  past.  Though  one  hesitates  to  call  with  M. 
Fagniez  the  spirit  of  the  gilds  "fundamentally  Christian,"  he 
is  glad  to  recognize  such  alertness  of  intelligence,  such  elabo- 
rate industrial  devices  and  purposes,  such  thoughtful  humani- 
tarian interests,  so  complex  a  system  of  checks  and  balances 
in  our  supposedly  naive  mediaeval  precursors. 


APPENDIX. 


Archiers— bow-makers. 

Barilliers=case-makers. 

Batteeurs  d'or=gold-beaters. 

Bateeurs  d'estain=pewter-beaters. 

Bateeurs    d'or     en     feuilles=gold- 
beaters. 

Bateeurs  d'archal=brass-beaters. 

Baudraiers=curriers  of  shoe- 
leather. 

Blatiers=corn-merchants. 

Blasenniers=saddle-fixtures. 

Boitiers=locksmiths. 

Boucliers  de  fer=iron-shield- 
makers. 

Boucliers  d'archal=brass-shield 
makers. 

Bourreliers=harness-makers. 


Boursiers=purse-makers. 

Boutonnier  s=button-  makers. 

Brachiers=breeches-makers. 

Cavesonniers=slipper-makers. 

Cavetiers=cobblers. 

Cervoisiers=ale-brewers. 

Chandliers    de    sieu=tallow-chand- 
lers. 

Chaneyaceriers=hemp-cloth- 
makers. 

Chapeliers    de    fleurs=flower-hat- 
ters. 

Chapeliers  de  cotoiu=:cap-makers. 

Chapeliers    de    paon=plumed   hat- 
ters. 

Chapeliers   de  feutre=felt-hatters. 

Chapuiseeurs=saddle-bow   makers. 


22 


Charpentiers=carpenters. 

Chauciers=hose-makers. 

Coureeurs=belt-makers. 

cordiers=rope-makers. 

Corduaniers==shoe-inakers. 

Couteliers=cutlers. 

Couteliers    serves=knife-blade- 
makers. 

Crespiniers=head-dress-makers. 

Crieurs=criers. 

Cristaliers=jewellers. 

Cuisiniers=cooks. 

Cyrugiens=barbers. 

Deeciers=playing:  dice-makers. 

Drapiers^woollen- weavers. 

Escueliers=pottery-sellers. 

Espinguiers=pin-makers. 

Estuveeurs=bath  proprietors. 

Faiseurs  de  clous=nail_makers. 

Fainiers=hay  merchants. 

Fermailleurs=clasp  and  buckle- 
makers. 

Fripiers=old-clothes  men. 

Feseresses  de  chap   d'orfois=mo- 
diste. 

Fourreurs    de   chapeliers=:fur-hat- 

ters. 
Fevres=iron-workers. 
Fileresses     de     soie=spinners     of 

coarse  silk. 
Fileresses  de  soie  a  petits  fuseaux 

=spinners  of  fine  ilk. 
Fondeurs=:smelters. 
Foulons=fullers. 
Fourbeeurs=:sword-cutlers. 
Gantiers=glovers. 
Gueiniers=:sheath-makers. 
Haubergiers=coats-of -mail-makers. 
Huiliers=:oil-makers. 
Jaugeeurs=gaugers. 
Laciers=braid-makers. 
Lampiers=lamp-makers. 
Lanterniers=lantern-makers. 
Liniers=linen  merchants. 
Lormiers=reins-makers. 
MaQons=masons. 

Marchante  chanvre=:hempH-thread 
sellers. 


Marechaux=iiron-farriers. 

Merciers=haberdashers. 

Mesureeurs=measurers. 

Meuniers=imillers. 

Orfevres=goldsmiths. 

Ouv.  de  menues  oeuvres  d'estain 

=pewterers. 
Ouv.  de  tissus  de  soie=workers  in 

silk-stuffs. 
Ouv.  de  drap  de  soie=silk-cloth. 
Peintres+imagiers=:painters    and 

illuminators. 
Paternostriers  d'os=bone-bead 

makers. 
Patenostriers  de  corail=coral-bead 

makers. 
Paternostriers  d'ambre=amber- 

bead-makers. 
Paternostriers+faiseurs  de  bou- 

cles=:brooch  and  bead-makers. 
Pecheeurs=fishermen. 
Poisonniers  d'eau  douce=fresh- 

water-fish-merchants. 
Poisonniers  de  mer=salt-water- 

fish-merchants- 
Potiers  de  terres=:potters. 
Potiers  d'estain=pewterers. 
Poulailliers=poulterers. 
Regrattiers  de  pain  de  sel=retail- 

ers  of  salt  and  bread. 
Regrattiers  de  fruits=green- 

grocers. 
Selliers— saddlers. 
Serruriers=locksmiths. 
Tabletiers=tablet-makers. 
Tapiciers  de  tapiz  sarrasinois 
^Oriental  carpet-makers. 
Tapiciers  de  tapiz  nostres=carpet- 

makers. 
Taverniers^:  wine-shop-keepers. 
Tisserands   de   queuvrechiers=ker- 

chief-makers. 
Trefilliers  de  fer=iron-wire- 

drawers. 
Trefilliers  d'archal=:brass-wire- 

drawers. 
Ymagiers=painters. 


23 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1.  Reglemens  sur  les  Arts  et  Metiers  de  Paris,  Rediges  au  xiiie  siecle 
et  connus  sous  le  nom  du  Livre  des  Metiers  d'fitienne  Boileau;  Publics 
pour  la  premiere  fois  en  entier  .  .  .  avec  des  notes  et  une  Introduction, 
par  G.  B.  Depping  a  Paris.  De  rimprimerie  de  Crapelet,  1837,  pp.xxxvi 
+474.     [Collection  de  Documents  Inedits  sur  I'Histoire  de  France]. 

2.  Le  Livre  des  Metiers  d'Etienne  Boileau,  public  par  Rene  de 
Lespinasse  et  Francois  Bonnardot.  [Histoire  Generalc  de  Paris — Les 
Metiers  et  les  corporations  de  la  Villc  de  Paris,  xiii«  siecle,  pp.  cliv-|-420. 
Paris,  Imprimeric  Nationalc,  1879]. 

References : 

Blanqui,  Jerome-Adolphc :  History  of  Political  Economy  in  Europe. 
Trans,  from  4th  Fr.  Ed.  by  Emily  J.  Leonard,     pp.  xxxviii+590.     1880. 

Brentano,  Luigi:  Essay  on  the  History  and  Development  of  Gilds: 
Early  English  Text  Society:  Vol.  40. 

Dendy,  F.  W.,  &  Boyle,  J.  R.,  editors.  "Extracts  from  the  Records  of 
the  Merchant  Adventurers  of  Newcastle-upon-Tyne.  Vol.  I,  pp.  lii+315. 
Surtees  Society  Publ.  xviii,  1895. 

Fagniez,  Gustave:  Documents  relatifs  a  THistoire  de  Tindustric  et 
du  Commerce  en  France.  Vol.  I,  vsrith  an  Introduction,  pp.  lxiv+349. 
Paris,  Alph.  Picard  et  Fils.    1898. 

Fagniez,  Gustave:  Etudes  sur  Tindustrie  et  la  Ind.  a  Paris  aux  xiiie 
+xive  siecle.    pp.  x+422.     Paris,  F.  Vieweg.     1877. 

Felibren,  D.  Michel:  Histoire  de  la  Ville  de  Paris,  5  vols,  in  folio. 
Paris,  1725. 

Forrest,  J.  Dorsey:  "The  Developmentof  Western  Civilization."  pp. 
ix+406.     U.  of  C.  Press.     1907. 

Gross,  Charles:  The  Gild  Merchant.  Vol.  I,  pp.  xxii-f332.  Vol.  II, 
pp.  xi+447.     Oxford:  Clarendon  Press.     1890. 

Labarte,  Jules:  Histoire  des  Arts  ind.  au  moyen  age  et  a  I'epoque  de 
la  Renaissance,  2^  Ed.     Paris,  1873.    3  vols. 

Lambert,  Rev.  J.  M. :     "Two  Thousand  Years  of  Gild  Life,"  etc.,  etc.     /y^ 
pp.  xi+414.    Hull,  1891. 

Levasseur,  Emilc:  Histoire  des  Classes  ouvrieres  de  I'industrie  en 
France  avant  1789.    2^  Ed.     Paris,  1900.    Vol.  I,  pp.  Ixxxviii4-715. 

Luchaire,  Achille:  Social  France  at  the  Time  of  Ph.  Auguste,  trans, 
by  E.  B.  Krehbiel.    pp.  viii+441.     New  York,  1912. 

Palgrave,  Sir  R.  H.  J.,  ed..  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy.  3  vols. 
Macmillan  &  Co.     London,  1910. 

Pigeonneau:  Histoire  du  Commerce  de  la  France.  2''  Ed.  pp.  vii 
+468  (Vol.  I).     Paris,  Librairie  Leopold  Cerf.     1885-89. 

Seligman,  E.  R.  A.:  Two  Chapters  on  the  Mediaeval  Guilds  of 
England.  Publ.  of  Am.  Econ.  Associ.  Vol.  II,  No.  5.  pp.  389-493,  Nov., 
1887. 

Toulmin  Smith:  Ed.  EngMsh  Gilds:  The  Original  Ordinances  of  more 
than  lOOi  Gilds.    E.  E.  T.  S.    Vol.  40. 

F.   B.   MiLLETT. 


f^:. 


Y.c  ^'''^'■^: 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED    FOB   FAILURE  TO    RETURN 
Th^S    BOOK   O?  THE   OATE  DUE.    THE   PENALTY 

WIUL  INCREASE  TO  SO  ^^^-^T^  °^  ™!,^°"oI" 
DAY     AND     TO     $1.00     ON     THE     SEVENTH     DAY 

OVERDUE.  


#4U^^Mm 


MM-ia-w^ 


\0^ 


^rr 


.PR    101939 


LD  21-100m-8,'34 


re  t  '438 


389407 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  UBRARY 


